1795 Baby Suggs, Halle's mother and Sethe's mother-in-law is born a slave

1835 Sethe is born to "Ma'am," the only name given to her mother
1835 Halle is born to Baby Suggs
1838 The Garners purchase Baby Suggs and Halle to work at Sweet Home in Kentucky
1848 Halle buys the freedom of Baby Suggs by doing extra work
1848 Sethe arrives at Sweet Home as a replacement for Baby Suggs
1849 Sethe marries Halle; they consummate their marriage in the cornfield
1850 Sethe gives birth to Howard
1851 Sethe gives birth to Buglar
1853 Mrs. Garner hires Schoolteacher to run Sweet Home after the death of her husband
1854 Sethe gives birth to Beloved
1855 Sethe sends Buglar, Howard, and Beloved to live with Baby Suggs, for she is afraid they will be sold
away from her; Paul D, Sixo, Halle, and Seth plan to escape from Sweet Home; Sethe, pregnant with her
fourth child, is attacked by the nephews of Schoolteacher, who suck the milk from her swollen breasts; Sethe
is beaten by the nephews when she tells Mrs. Garner about the attack; Schoolteacher kills Sixo and Paul A;
Sethe leaves Sweet Home; Sethe gives birth to Denver with the help of Amy; Sethe goes to 124 Bluestone to
find Baby Suggs; Sethe tries to kill her children to save them from slavery; Beloved dies, but Buglar,
Howard, and Beloved survive; Sethe is taken to jail for murder, and Denver is with her; Sethe and Denver
are released from prison; Beloved ghost's takes up residence at 124 Bluestone
1856 Paul D is captured and locked up in Albert, Georgia
1857 Sethe takes a job at Sawyer's Restaurant
1862-1863

Denver attends Lady Jones' school; she is dismissed when it is learned that she and Sethe

spent time in jail

1865 Buglar and Howard leave home; Baby Suggs dies
1873 Paul D comes to Sethe's house in Cincinnati; Beloved arrives at 124 Bluestone; Beloved seduces
Paul D.
1874 Paul D leaves Sethe when he learns she killed her child
1875

Sethe tries to stab Edwin Bodwin with an ice pick when he tries to take Denver from her; Beloved

vanishes; Paul D returns

The past
Baby Suggs was a slave. She was kept mainly as a breeding slave (woman who got mated with other
slaves even against her will to get her pregnant and bear children who would be raised only to be sold to
someone else as soon even before their adult teeth came out) by her former owners Whitlows. She had 8
babies with 6 different men. 7 of those were taken from her and sold to slavery, only her last one, Halle was
left to her, as he was weak and small. Her paper name was Jenny Whitlow (according to the owners), but she

called herself Baby Suggs, because Suggs was the name of her husband, the only man she ever loved, and
he called her Baby.
When she hurt her hip and couldnt move very well since then she and Halle were both sold to
Garners, who were quite liberal slave owners. They lived in a farm named Sweet Home, Kentucky and
owned six slaves: Paul D, Paul A, Paul F, Sixo and Baby Suggs and Halle. They valued their slaves and
acknowledged them as equal humans. They cared about their comfort, listened to their opinions and advice,
allowed them to date whomever they wanted, allowed them to keep their children and minded they cared
about them properly, to have a gun for hunting.
Because of her hurt Baby Suggs couldnt work on the farm very well, so Halle decided to buy her out
from slavery. He made a pact with Mr. Garner. During his free time Halle went to the town and worked there
in order to earn money to free his mother. He was working there for 5 years. Baby Suggs was moved from
Sweet House to 124 Bluestone Road, Cincinnati, an old house owned by Ella and John Bodwin (siblings).
They hated slavery more than anything and gave their old house to the freed slaves to live in. Here Baby
Suggs realizes the worth of freedom, her self-worth, she becomes a kind of preacher, teaching the slaves to
love themselves because no one else does love them (meaning the whites). She is a respected person and her
job here is making and repairing shoes.
After Baby Suggs left Sweet Home Mrs. Lillian Garner needed some woman help, so Mr. Garner
bought Sethe for her. Sethe was 13 when she came there. She didnt know her mother, she only remembered
her as one of the bent backs working on a field at the plantation in the south where she was born. Kids there
were raised in a community, their mothers had to work on the plantation, so there was one woman Nan who
cared about the kids and taught them what they needed for the life of a slave. Babies there were milked by
random women, but who first had to breastfeed the children of the whites, and their own kids were given
what remained. The second memory Sethe had of her mother was that she showed her a burned scar on her
chest so that Sethe could identify her body if she died. Living in Sweet Home Sethe soon forgot even her
mothers language.
When Sethe came to Sweet Home all the Negro men wanted her (except Sixo who loved a Thirtymile Woman who lived in a farm 30 miles away and in his free time he traveled there to be with her). Sethe
fell in love with Halle and married him when she was 14. She dreamt of a wedding, she sew herself dress
and they had a private romantic ceremony. She bore him 2 sons, Howard, Buglar, and daughter and was
pregnant with another baby.
That time Mr. Garner died, Mrs. Garner became ill with tumor on her throat. She sold Paul F to pay
for her husband debts and asked her relative, the schoolteacher, to come and help her take care of the farm.
However, the schoolteacher and his 2 nephews were typical cruel slave owners. They established very strict
regime for the slaves, cut short their food, gave them more duties, banned their guns and work in the town.
He punished them cruelly and experimented on them. Eg. they put iron on the slaves mouth so he couldnt
drink. When Sethe had milk for her baby, they milked her like a cow, one nephew holding her, the other

sucking her breasts, and the schoolteacher taking notes. He thought slaves to be animals and treated them so.
So the slaves decided to run away by a train.
However, the day, they decided to escape, one nephew beat Sethe extremely hard, so her back skin
was tore (thats why she has scars in a tree shape). Halle probably saw it, and because he couldnt help his
wife, he gone mad. Paul D saw him later sitting in a delirious mood patted all over with butter.
At the appointed time only Paul D, thirty-mile woman and Sixo showed up at the appointed place.
They waited for the others to come, but instead there came the schoolteacher and his nephews, who
somehow found out about their plan. Only the girl managed to get away. Sixo was burn on a pyre after he
gone crazy, singing a song, and trying to steal the nephews gun and threaten them with it. Paul D was
brought back to the farm, because he was worthy and could be sold later.
Back at the farm Paul D met Sethe who managed to get her 3 kids on the train, she sent them to Baby
Suggs, but she didnt want to go without Halle. But he was nowhere to be found, so in the end she run away
alone. Along the way she found two hanged bodies, Paul As and probably Halles.
Sethe was in the 6th month pregnancy, she traveled so quick and hard that her feet sore and swelled.
She fell down near a river, where a white girl with too much hair, Amy Denver, found her. She led her in a
small shed nearby, massaged her feet, and waited the night with her there. Amy wanted to get to Boston to
buy herself some silk. The next day they found a boat, with some holes in it, but they used it to cross the
river. It rained. As soon as they sat in the boat Sethes labor started. Amy helped her birth the baby. Sethe
named the baby after her, Denver. When they got to the other side of the river, Sethe passed out on the bank.
When she woke up, she found some Negroes fishing nearby. They helped her to get to 124 to Baby
Suggs. Baby Suggs cared about her and the baby and healed her. Sethe experienced there her 28 days of free
life. On the 28 day there was a big feast at 124, but the next day Baby Suggs woke up very nervous, because
she sensed that something bad is going to happen. She was working in the garden, Sethe walking near her
with Denver, her other kids playing around the house. Baby Suggs kept looking to the river, but the evil
came down the road. The schoolteacher and one of his nephews came along with a policeman. When Sethe
saw them, she got mad, grabbed her kids, led them to a woodshed and tried to kill them. Shes rather kill her
kids than expose them to the terror of the schoolteacher. She killed the older girl (the girl was 2 years) with
axe, but Stamp Paid came there in time to save Denver as he took the axe from her hands. When the
schoolteacher saw it, he left without her, because she would be no use for him anymore.
Baby Suggs took the scared and shocked boys and baby away. After some time she brought the baby
back to her to feed her. Sethe was in some kind of trance, she gave the baby her breast with blood of the
dead girl on it, and Denver sucked milk with the blood. Then a policeman cam to arrest her and brought her
in his car with the baby still in her hands. Sethe spent 6 months in a jail, her baby with her, until Ms. Bodwin
pleaded for her.
Sethe returned to 124 and they never spoke about the murder. She buried the baby and got her a tomb
made. She put there the only writing she had money for: Beloved. She started working in a restaurant and
Denver attended Lady Jones School and earned to read. However, the ghost of the dead girl was still present

in the house, scaring and hurting everybody. Sethes sons are scared of her and later run away from the
house when they are 13. Denver becomes deaf when she find out about the murder, but she is not scared of
the ghost, she even plays with her during her deaf period. Denver could see the ghost. It was in 1850-1860s
during the north-south war and slavery was abolished.
When Denver was 10, Baby Suggs grew tired of her life. She spent all her time in her bed
contemplating colours. Her room was dim, in brown and gray shades, and the only colour was 2 orange
squares on her bed clothing. Baby Suggs died and was buried next to the dead baby. Sethe and Denver lived
in 124 alone, isolated from the town people. Once Denver saw the white ghost of a girl in long dress
kneeling next to her mother when she was praying.
Book 1
18 year after the murder Paul D came to 124 (and thats where the book starts telling the story).
Meanwhile, he was sold from Sweet Home, he tried to kill his new master, went to jail, traveled from place
to place, never staying anywhere too long, he went to war for north. He slept with Sethe, helped her around
the house, brought money from his work. He wanted to make a family with Sethe and Denver, and he nearly
succeeded, despite the fact that Denver didnt like him in their house even though she felt alone there
(Denver needed attention of her co-age, thats why she secretly started using cologne). While Paul D was in
124, the ghost disappeared. One day he invited Sethe and Denver to a feast in the town, they went hand in
hand like a real family and even seethe liked the idea.
However, when they came home, there was a young girl in wet long black dress lying in their garden.
Sethe got sick from the sight of her, spited, and felt strange about her. They brought the girl in and she drank
a lot. Sethe and Denver tended her and healed her. The girl didnt remember anything from her past, except a
bridge and a river. She said her name was Beloved. Sethe and Denver start to think she is an incarnation of
the dead baby. They can even see scars on her neck and forehead as from axe and fingernails. They become
sure it is the dead girl when she asks about Sethes mother and her earrings, something she never told
anyone before. And especially when Beloved hummed a song Sethe invented for her children at Sweet
Home. Beloved soon grown jealous of Sethe, dependent on her. Sethe tries to make up for the lost years of
mother love.
Paul D doesnt know anything, but he doesnt like the new girl. He feels as if she was trying to get
him out of the house. He starts to feel uncomfortable sleeping in the house, so he moves to shed in the
garden. However, Beloved soon starts coming there in the night asking him to have sex with her. Firstly he
resisted, but then agreed. He wants to tell about his fear to Sethe, but instead of doing so, he asks her to have
a baby with him (he fails because he doesnt want her to think he is weak) and moves back to the house
again. He tells about his insecurity to Stamp Paid, who in turn shows him old article from newspaper about
the murder. Paul asks Sethe about it, and when he learns it is true, he moves out of 124.
Book 2

Sethe, Denver and Beloved are at first happy that Paul left and they can devote their time to each other.
Sethe finds it surprisingly easy to talk to Beloved about her past and slave life, Beloved is always a keen
listener. At first Denver is afraid that Sethes killing lust may awake. She tries to protect Beloved from her.
But one day when they visit the grave Sethe starts suffocating and it seems like Beloved tried to kill her by
the power of her mind. So Denver starts to protect Sethe from Beloved. Beloved is very lively when Sethe is
home, but when she is at work, B. is very quiet and soulless. The two are still more and more absorbed in
each other, Sethe doing anything to please Beloved, and Beloved misusing her kindness. Sethe buys her
colorful cloths and sews them fancy dresses, gives most of the food to Beloved, herself eating very little.
Beloved is getting bigger and bigger in belly. Sethe even stopped going to work. They dont care about
anything else, so soon they come short of all money and food.
Meanwhile, Paul D stays in a chamber of an old church, he doesnt want to ask anyone to offer him
housing even though everyone in the town would gladly accommodate him. Stamp Paid feel sorry for him,
thinking it is because of him that he left 124. He tries to come to 124 to find out more about the girl, and talk
with Sethe, but every time he gets to their door, he fails to knock. Talking with Paul he expresses a belief,
that the strange girl is no reincarnation, but her existence can be explained rationally. He knew a house aside
from the town, a white man living there held prison a Negro girl. Some time ago he found the man dead and
the girl gone.
Book 3
124 household is starving. Denver decides it is up on her to keep her family alive. For the first time
since her schooldays she goes to the town. She finds the only house she remembers, Lady Jones. She is
unable to explain her situation to L. Jones, but she gives her food. Soon many people start to bring food to
their house, and it is learned that there is a strange girl living in 124. Denver finally decides to look for job,
as she is ashamed to rely on foreign people to feed them. She asks Bodwins for some. Mr. Bodwin promises
to employ her. He is going to go on a business trip out of the town, but on his way back he will come and
take her up at her house. However, that day people from the town gather in 124 garden and start singing and
preaching, they want to drive the strange girl out of the house, because they feel they owe it to Baby Suggs.
Denver is waiting on the porch waiting for Mr. Bodwin when they come. Sethe and Beloved come out.
Beloved is naked and she has a pregnant belly. At that moment Mr. Bodwin arrives, but when Sethe sees him
she mistakes him for the schoolteacher, gets crazy again and attacks him. Denver is the first one to realize it
and push her mother away from the man. Then the people pacify her.
Story continues some time after that incident. Paul D meets Stamp and also Denver and they talk.
Denver works in the town. Beloved was not seen since that day, only some clothes were found near the river,
some town people say they didnt see her that day on the porch, others swear they did. Bodwin did not sue
her mother for attacking him, but from that time on she only lies in bed in Baby Suggs old room, her bed
clothing in bright colours. Ms Bodwin plans to sell 124. Paul D visits Sethe. He is angry with her, because
he doesnt want her to give up on life so soon and die like Baby Suggs died.